Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Most of you who are reading this are bloggers but if you are not and find blogging too tedious but would still like to try blogging someday, you could.

Try Twitter. To quote a recent WSJ article, Twitter is One of the hottest technologies in Silicon Valley is also one of the simplest.

Twitter is in a way blogging, micro-blogging, that is. Twitter prompts users to do one thing: answer the question, "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less. You can keep friends and family in touch quickly wherever you are even as text messages. It is a quick way to get answers to your questions too.

Twitter is really simple. Look who's talking and to think that yours truly took a while contemplating whether or not to get on it.

The truth is, I didn't like the idea of sharing with the world what I do. I am sort of a private person, you understand. Yes, I am. In fact, I was like, why in the world would anyone want the world to know what he or she is doing?! That is so personal. Eww!! How narcissistic can one get! Besides, following another person is like openly stalking that poor soul. Double-Eww!! Anyway, I think differently now as I don't have to talk about myself, ahem.. I just update as and whenever I feel like it... mostly neutral, non-personal stuff. I think.

So, sign up already and let me stalk, I mean, Follow you, and you can follow me, if you like. No, I am not getting paid for this. I just thought it would be nice to have more of my blog-friends get on it.

Twitter has become quite a force in the Internet world. Let this article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday give you the details - Twitter Goes Mainstream.

These are the people who got Twitter started - Co-founders Jack Dorsey (left), and Biz Stone

2 comments:

No, nobody would want to know what you do in the restroom though they might be interested to know what you do with your skill with your camera, outside the restroom. ;)

The intent of Twitter is to get people connected, sometimes realtime, other times not so realtime. Friends and family sometimes want to know what each other is up to to stay connected. Or we may want to know what little things people do the other side of the globe. Things like that, that is if the person is interested.

Let me give you an example. During the Beijing Olympics, someone I followed (Twitter terminology) went to Beijing from the US. He was there for many days, from the Opening right up to the Closing ceremony and games in-between as well as visits to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, and various other places. Through Twitter, I got to see some of China and the places he went to right down to the Emperor's throne-room. I appreciated that very much and thanked him for sharing.

Lots of people now use Twitter in conferences/briefings, etc, to transmit/share info to people who are not able to attend or to other interested parties. The options are endless.

Have you had the chance to see the Twitter video? It will give you a better idea of the concept. Take a look.